


Neither Past Nor Present

by Nessa_Park



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Femslash, Multiple Perspectives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-05-18 17:06:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19338844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nessa_Park/pseuds/Nessa_Park
Summary: An alternate story where every event in the backstory is inverted.Terra Branford is rescued from the town of Narshe by the dashing adventurer Rachel. Seeking aid, the two women venture south to Figaro Castle.





	1. Rescue From Narshe

**Author's Note:**

> I did not include all characters featured in this story in the tags. I want the appearance of at least some of them to be surprises. Here are the rules I set for myself while developing the events and characters of the story. 
> 
> 1) Any event in the backstory of the game has the characters inverted. For example, in the backstory of the original game, Locke's girlfriend Rachel dies and he survives. In this story, he died during the backstory and Rachel survived. 
> 
> 2) These inversions includes any significant event in the backstory (not just deaths)
> 
> 3) A few other events have miscellaneous changes
> 
> The implications of these changes are far reaching in the story and likely quite surprising. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it thus far.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Under the influence of the slave crown, Terra invades Narshe. After familiar events, she is rescued by a certain messenger for the Returners.

Terra listened to the sound of her armor compacting the snow beneath her feet. On each side of her was a man in heavy armor. She remembered both of them leading her so far up north, but she couldn’t remember why. She couldn’t recall anything either of the two had said. She could barely remember what their voices sounded like.

Terra felt almost as if her body was being suspended underwater. While she could see most of everything around her, it felt almost as if she was looking at it through thick clouded glass.

While she had no control over her body’s motion, Terra was almost sure her body would move slowly as if submerged in a murky swamp if she was free and could move.

Terra couldn’t remember the last time she had left the armor that surrounded her. Her hands were clenched tightly around control sticks she couldn’t even look down far enough to see. Her legs were encased in something out of sight. For much of her body, she could barely feel anything.

The town around her looked to be practically carved into a mountain. On either side of her were brown buildings mere feet from the rocky sides of the narrow valley. Aside from this, Terra didn’t take in anything about where she was.

The two men stepped forward as Terra walked. She felt cold as she looked at the snow on the ground, but the cold didn’t feel painful like it normally would.

As she moved through the central road of the mountainous town, she could see people before her. It was as she heard the sound of magitek weaponry spinning up that she wanted to tell people to run. The dream like feeling she had been experiencing popped into hard reality.

No words came out of Terra’s mouth. She watched as a red beam originating from somewhere in her armor emerged out at the people. A second later, all that remained was ash.

As she advanced through the town, Terra could just barely see out of the periphery of her vision someone running over rooftops. She couldn't make anything out aside from a vague figure. A moment later, they were gone.

One of the men beside her said something, and Terra turned her head forward. Her attention focused back to the road directly in front of her.

 

It felt like an eternity of slaughtering people in the road before Terra reached the very back of the town. At it was the entrance to a cave. One of the men beside her spoke, and Terra knew she was to enter the cave.

As she stepped through the entrance to the cave, she was blinded by the darkness. Despite this, she did not stop. It was only once she found herself attacking something in the cave that her vision came back to her.

She watched as beams fired from her armor at a giant snail creature. Her view of it was dominated by the spiky purple shell the beast wore on its back. The creature itself was yellow with antennae coming from both the top of its head and below its mouth. She heard the voices of the men beside her and suddenly knew it was important to not attack it while it hid in its shell.

Each time the snail popped its head out, she blasted it with the lasers of her armor. It all happened without any input from her.

Terra didn’t even have the luxury of looking away when the snail exploded, scattering its entrails all around the cave. She heard the men say something once again, and she began to move forward.

It was only a small bit more before Terra found herself at the back of the cave. At the very back was a winged bird encased in ice. She was sure it was larger than any human. As she looked at it, she almost felt like it spoke to her. She walked forward towards it; doing so felt different from the commands she mindlessly followed from the men.

There was an emotion in the cold blue eyes of this bird that Terra couldn’t understand. She continued to stare into its eyes even when it began glowing. She didn’t stop as she heard one of the men behind her shout something before being silenced. She didn’t stop when she heard screaming behind her cut short. She didn't stop when the bird fired blue arcs of electricity at the crown resting atop her head.

 

Terra awoke in a bed unfamiliar to her. She spent a few minutes passing in and out of consciousness before she finally was awake. Once she felt fully conscious, she jumped out of the bed.

Immediately, dizziness hit her. The world around her was blurrier than it had ever been before. She could just make out that she was inside a building. The room she was in was not particularly large or small. The walls were bare of decorations. On one side of the room, there was a closed door. On the other, an open doorway.

As Terra looked at the doorway, she could see a man walking through it. He was whizzened with a thin beard and hair beginning to leak gray.

“Where... am… I?” Terra asked. Words took longer to put together than seemed natural.

The man said something, but he didn’t answer her question. He spoke for a moment as if she wasn't there. It was difficult for Terra to focus on this man given the pressure she was feeling in her head.

She clutched at her temples. She could just barely remember there being a tightness on her head for a very long period of time. In that moment, the feeling was gone for the first time in Terra’s shaky memory. Despite this, her head hurt terribly.

Terra clutched at her temple. “My head hurts,” she said.

Once again, the man said something that didn’t address what she had said.

Turning to a new thought, Terra said, “I can’t remember anything.”

The man said something reassuring, but Terra could not make out exactly what. She understood enough to know that it had something to do with getting her memory back.

Terra struggled to reach into what little she recalled and pluck out a single piece of information about herself. “My name is… Terra.”

The man said something, but was cut off by the sound of someone yelling at the front door of the house.

Terra could barely make out the words, “empire” and “magitek” coming from the front of the house. She asked the man about these words, but he cut her off when he put his hands on her shoulders, looked her deep in the eyes, and spoke. For the first time, Terra heard exactly what he said.

“You need to get out of here,” he said, “These fools aren’t going to listen to reason.” The man ran to the back of the house and gestured for Terra to come with her.

“Make your way out of the town through the mines!” the man said, “I’ll try to buy you some time.”

Terra pushed open the door and exited the house.

 

The dizziness Terra felt inside the house was nothing compared to what she felt once she was outside. It was like she had just spun in a circle for five minutes straight.

The door had opened onto a section of the town that, fortunately, was mostly obscured by the buildings around it. Immediately in front of her was a small rocky cliff-face. It seemed mostly untouched by the snow that was coming down.

She leaned against the cliff-face and tried to steady herself. After a moment passed and she was no less dizzy than before, Terra resolved to keep going.

Before her was a wooden bridge suspended over much of the town. She was fairly sure she could see the entrance to a cave at the end of it. Terra gathered as much courage as possible before she began trekking across.

The bridge was far more secure than she had expected it to be. Terra traversed halfway across before she looked down.

This decision to turn her attention downwards was sparked by seeing people approaching on the road below the bridge. She saw this out of her peripheral vision. Terra turned her head on instinct to the road below. There were four guards gathered. One of them shouted. Terra turned back to the bridge and ran across the rest as quickly as she could.

She stumbled into the cave she had seen earlier and resisted the urge to catch her breath. The chances were good that the people who had been at the front door of the house she had just been in were now pursuing her from the other side of the bridge she had just crossed over.

It was difficult to see much of anything in the dark caves given that she had just came from the very white coated outside. Terra could make out vague shapes, but little else. Still, her dizziness persisted.

She felt along the walls of the cave as she advanced. This was less than optimal, but stopping to let her eyes adjust was not an option. She could feel her heart pumping through her body at that moment. It was frantic in how quickly it beat.

It was fortunate that Terra’s vision had returned enough to make out what stood before her prior to when she reached the first of the bridges in the caves. She hoped desperately to not fall as she ran across. She once again resisted the urge to rest when she got to an island amongst the bridges. Instead, she ran to the next bridge.

Relief overcame her when she was once again on solid ground without a bridge in sight. The urge to stop and rest was stronger in that moment than it had been at any point before. Still, Terra continued to run.

She ran up a flight of stairs that had been carved into the stone. At this point, she did not know which way was out. She was driven by a primal need to be anywhere other than where she had been just a few moments ago.

“Got her!” Terra heard someone shout from behind her. Panic overcame whatever last rational part of her remained. She turned around to face whoever was pursuing her.

The guards were dressed like many of the others. If the cave had been any better illuminated and she had been any less dizzy, she would have been able to see more than two beige masses.

Terra looked to her side. There were two more coming at her from that direction.

Terra backed away to a corner of the cave. There was nowhere to go.

As she retreated, the guards approached her. She could feel her breathing quicken even further than it currently was.

Terra let out a yelp as the ground below her feet collapsed.

In her half dazed state, she was amazed that she hadn’t passed out. She tried to stand and walk. It was only a few steps later that consciousness left her.

 

Rachel landed on her feet as she jumped to the cave below. She had a very long time ago learned the best way to land from a fall to preserve one’s knees.

The girl laying beside her was dressed in a red shirt and shoes. She wore white stockings and a pink cape. While her clothes made her stand out from any other strange cave dwelling person, the feature that Rachel focused most heavily on was her pastel green hair. It was downright exotic compared to Rachel’s plain dark hair (or really any other haircolor Rachel had ever seen).

The second mostly noteworthy feature was just how tiny and emaciated the girl was. Rachel couldn’t be sure of her exact height given she was crumpled up into a ball, but she was fairly sure that the girl was fairly smaller than her own average height. Celes wasn’t sure if the sickliness of the girl was because of how thin she was or the result of whatever other mistreatment she had received at the hands of the empire.

Rachel would have continued to pursue this line of thought, but she heard the sound of guards incoming from elsewhere in the cave.

As she looked around for exits, Rachel thought back to what she was supposed to do once she found the girl. The old man had explained just how important it was for the sake of Narshe that she secure an alliance between the town and the Returners. The first step of this was rescuing the girl and bringing her to Figaro.

Rachel turned her attention back at the guards entering the cave. From the sound of footsteps, she inferred there had to be at least six of them if not more. She had taken a few glances at the guards in town before she had entered the caves. Each one had been wrapped in beige cloth and had been wielding a shield on one arm and sickle in the opposite hand.

It was only after the shortest of moments of listening for these guards that Rachel concluded that fighting them wasn’t her best option. She looked around for somewhere she could flee to after grabbing the girl laying beside her.

The caves around her were tight. She was in a small part of the current cave that was open. The section of the cave before her was winding with only narrow passages to get through. She could only see a few feet in front of her before the paths began winding out of sight. Behind her was a small opening to another section of the caves. It was around the size that only one person could get through at a time.

Before Rachel could grab the collar of the unconscious girl and start dragging her, she heard a noise from behind her. “Kupo”

Rachel could see two creatures resembling bear cubs coming through the opening. They were white and stood on two legs. Each had pink wings as well as what seemed to be a single pink antenna coming from their heads.

Rachel knew these creatures to be moogles. She had heard people speak many tales about them and was vaguely familiar with their kind.

What Rachel hadn’t expected was for them to be armed. One of them was equipped with a spear far larger than they were. The other held what looked to be metal blackjack.

“Are you guys trying to help me?” Rachel asked.

The moogles jumped and nodded before responding with an enthusiastic, “Kupo!”

A moment later, more moogles entered Rachels’ section of the cavern. It wasn’t long before it was practically filled with soft white moogles, each equipped with their own unique weapon.

At the same time, Rachel could hear the sound of even more boots begin to pour in from the other side of the cave. Within a few seconds, it was clear to her that the number of guards had easily doubled. It was hardly a second of rest before the rumbling of boots reappeared. This time, they got louder with every passing second.

The moogles didn’t waste a moment before rushing at the incoming guards. Rachel watched as they pushed forward into the twisting portion of the cavern ahead. As she lost sight of them, she turned her attention to the sounds of battle.

Unless moogles had cries of pain resembling those of Narshe guards, it didn’t sound like they needed any help. Still, Rachel kept her hand on the hilt of the knife on her belt. Within a minute, the sounds of battle were over. The moogles returned from the cavern in small groups. Rachel felt almost uncomfortable at just how pristine and white the coats of each moogle looked.

Rachel stood transfixed at the tiny warriors for a moment before she remembered her mission.

“Thank you,” Rachel yelled over her shoulder as she left the room. In her arms was the unconscious girl.

As Rachel continued into the caves, she could see lanterns and rafters above. While it was nice to be able to see everything around her clearly, it made her more wary of getting ambushed by more guards.

Eventually, Rachel saw a lever attached to the wall. It was shaped like the head of a dog. In its mouth as a wooden handle. Knowing that she was probably going to have to use both hands to pull the lever, Rachel bent down before laying the girl in her arms on the ground. As she did so, she took care to cradle the girl’s head.

Rachel got up and walked to the lever before pulling it.

Immediately, she could hear the sound of gears grinding against each other as well as other aspects of what clearly was heavy machinery. It was loud enough that she was sure that anyone remaining in the cave could hear it.

It was likely for this reason that the green haired girl stirred awake. Rachel watched as the girl’s eyes opened and she bolted up to a kneeling position. The emotion most prevalent on her face was confusion.

Rachel bent down next to the girl and said, “Hello sleepyhead.”

The girl got up from her knees and turned to face Rachel. “You saved me?”

“I had the Moogles’ help.”

The girl smiled ever so slightly at the mention of the fuzzy white creatures. This smile dissipated almost instantly. “I can’t remember anything,” she said, “not the past, and not the present.”

“That sounds tough,” Rachel said. Sympathy was one of the few things she could offer the girl.

“There was a man,” the girl said, “And he said something about my memories.”

“I think your memories come back,” Rachel said, “I’ll keep you safe until then.”

There was a confusion on the girl’s face for a moment. If Rachel had to guess, she was thinking back to something else. Given that she couldn’t remember much of anything, this look was very quickly replaced by one of frustration. Rachel couldn’t help but think of it as cute.

“We should get going,” Rachel said, “We don’t know if there are any more guards in the area.”

With that, the two of them exited the caves through the doorway.

Almost immediately, they were hit with the cold Narshe air. Being inside the caves had left them now unadjusted to the biting cold and snow. Rachel clenched her teeth together and waited for them to begin chattering.

The air around them was filled with so much snow falling from the sky that it was hard to see ten feet in front of her. From what Rachel remembered from her way into the town, where they had just come out of was facing south. If they walked towards what she was fairly sure was a snow covered valley in the distance, they would be going where they were needed.

“Let’s head off to the south,” Rachel said, “It’s warmer there, and there’s someone we need to see.”

“Who?” the girl asked.

Rachel smiled as she answered, “King Sabin of Figaro.”


	2. King of Figaro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After escaping Narshe, Terra and Rachel seek refuge in Figaro. They meet the king and discuss future plans. The king meets with a certain court mage.

It was while they were on the road that Rachel learned that the girl traveling with her was named “Terra”. She couldn’t help but silently remark on how such an unusual name fit such an unusual girl.

In the time that they were traveling, Rachel tried to explain as much about the world to Terra as she could. On occasion, Terra would indicate back to her that she already knew something Rachel was explaining. It seemed arbitrarily how Terra remembered things. She could vaguely recall small details of the city she had grown up in, but not anything about the Empire. She could remember all sorts of intricacies about magic but not what a train was. What Rachel did notice was that Terra didn’t seem to recall any people from her past.

Rachel took a liking to Terra more and more as she talked to her. Terra couldn’t remember her age, but Rachel was almost certain that Terra was younger than her. Rachel hadn’t ever had a sister before, but this was what she imagined being an older sister was like.

Terra seemed like a lost girl without much sense of direction. There was something about this that drove Rachel to watch after the girl to a degree beyond what her duties as a Returner required.

Terra’s lack of direction was coupled with just how infirm she looked. She seemed scrawny all over with dark bags under her eyes and sunken cheeks. Rachel assumed that much of her strength had waned away from a mixture of malnourishment and being cooped up in magitek armor for far too long. While Terra could walk and even run without difficulty, Rachel worried how she would fair in a fight.

 

“Is that it?” Terra asked as she pointed to what she hoped was a castle in the distance. She could vaguely remember what castles looked like, but Rachel had warned her about mirages appearing in the desert.

“I think it is!” Rachel said. The relief in her voice was easy to hear.

It was all at once that the two of them began running towards the castle. While Terra knew that she wasn’t supposed to be running in the desert so she could conserve water, the thought of being somewhere where the sun did not beat down on her was too strong to resist.

The run to the castle was the easiest part of the journey thus far. Terra wiped the sweat from her face as she ran. At first, all she could see was a slight protrusion out of the sand. As she ran forward, she could see more and more of the castle. It was made from stone and shone vividly brown against the yellow dunes. She wasn’t sure how tall it was, but she could tell it was massive.

There were men standing outside the castle dressed in red and green armor. Each held a sheathed sword at their side.

“We’re expecting you,” one of the men said. He was standing beside what Terra assumed to be the front door of the castle.

The men pulled opened the large door inside and gestured for Rachel and Terra to enter. Terra hesitated at the request, but she gave in after seeing Rachel walk through the doorway without pause.

The first thing Terra felt as she walked through the doorway was the sudden drop in temperature compared to the outside.

Rachel and her had to wait in the entrance to the castle for a minute or so for their eyes to adjust to the darkness of the castle compared to the extreme brightness of the desert. Once they could see clearly again, they began making their way through the castle.

The desert castle was far different from how Narshe had been. While the thing Terra most easily noticed was the brick the walls were made from and how different it was from the wooden walls of the house she had briefly inhabited in Narshe, what stood out in particular was just how much more decorated the castle was. Each wall had a tapestry hanging from it and most of the rooms had rugs over the floor. The only time she saw a part of the castle without any decoration was during a brief section of the trip through an exterior part of the castle.

It was after passing through many rooms that Terra finally entered the throne room. She assumed it to be the throne room from the two opulent thrones standing at the end of the very long room. Each of them was made from a sleek metal with gemstones embedded every few inches. The seats of the throne themselves were of blue fabric. A man was sitting on the throne to the right.

He was one of the blondest people Terra had ever seen. He was like a mountain of muscle in the vague shape of a man. Still, Terra could see a small bit of pudge under his tank top. His face was angular, and his hair was pulled back into a thick ponytail. He wore a blue tank-top and white pants. No crown sat atop his head.

He sat on the throne in what looked like the least kingly way possible. He had both legs up on one of the arms of the chair with his torso leaning against the other arm. Terra hadn’t seen a lot of poses in the past two days, but she was sure that this one was extra casual. The sitting man was the only one in the room aside from Terra and Rachel.

The man smiled a wide and warm smile at the site of the two. At that moment, Terra thought about how she was sure Rachel had told her a thousand times what the name of this man was. Despite all this, she was coming up blank when it came to what she was supposed to address him by.

Rachel was the first to break the silence that had taken the room when they entered. “This is Terra,” she said.

“Greetings and welcome to my kingdom,” the man said, “I’m Sabin.” He stared at Terra as he said this. There was an excited smile on his face.

“I’m going to let you two get acquainted,” Rachel said as she turned and began walking to the door. Terra wanted dearly to ask Rachel to stay. It was only from what rules of etiquette that she could still remember that she didn’t make such a request.

Terra turned back to King Sabin after watching Rachel walk out. There was an intense curiosity in his eyes as he looked at her.

“You seem very interested in me,” Terra said. She wasn't sure if her discomfort was readily apparent in her voice.

“In case you’re worried,” Sabin said, “I’m gay.”

“Gay?” Terra asked. The word was one unfamiliar to her.

“It means I’m only into men.”

“I don’t think I understand,” Terra said. She worried that this was something else she had forgotten because of the crown.

“I only like dating other men,” Sabin said, “Did they not teach you about this stuff in the Empire?”

“I don’t know,” Terra said. She stared down at the ground as she spoke, “I’ve lost my memories.”

“Oh.” Sabin sounded like he regretted his words.

Terra got lost in the thought of what Sabin had just said. The concept he had just explained was stuck to her mind in a way she was not used to.

“If you really want to know why I'm so interested in you, it’s because I think magic is really cool,” Sabin said.

“Really?” Terra asked. While she understood that magic was something practically unheard of for a large variety of people, to her, it felt as mundane as walking.

“Definitely!” Sabin said, “I’ve been doing martial arts, and I’ve barely begun to scratch what I’ve heard magic can do.”

“Really?” Terra asked. She vaguely knew what martial arts was, but she hadn’t ever heard about it conveying any sort of powers.

“Watch this,” Sabin said as he jumped up from the throne and took a few steps away from it. He put his hands together. He cupped them by his side for a moment and closed his eyes.

Terra watched as blue light shown out of the cracks between Sabin’s fingers. A moment later, Sabin brought his hands forward and opened them. The light sat there for a moment before it began dimming to nothingness. Whatever he had attempted to do had fizzled out.

“I’m still working on it,” Sabin said. With that, he returned to his throne. “Do you think you could show me magic?” he asked.

Terra was silent for far longer than she would have preferred.

“If you’re not comfortable with it right now, that’s okay,” Sabin said, “You can leave the throne room if you’d like. I don’t want to keep you here all day.”

“Okay,” Terra said as she turned to the door and exited the room. Much of the awkwardness she had felt around Sabin had dissipated by this point, but she still felt somewhat relieved to be out of there.

 

Immediately after leaving the room, Terra began trying to find Rachel. Even though there were guards in every room she entered, it still felt like the first time Terra had ever been alone. As such, finding Rachel was her number one priority.

Unfortunately, she did not have much success. After a certain point of failed searching, she even tried to find Sabin. A trip to the throne room and adjacent rooms hadn’t turned up anything. Where exactly Rachel or Sabin were, Terra didn’t know.

As she searched, her mind still clung to what Sabin had said. While she had thought to some degree about men loving men, she mostly focused on women loving women. Terra didn’t even know two women not including herself, but she couldn’t bring images of women hugging and kissing each-other out of her head.

After an hour or so of trying to find her friends, Terra found herself in the hall right outside the throne room. It was right as she turned to leave this room and go outside that she found a guard standing right outside the door.

“You need to stay here,” the guard said. He was just as hulking as all the others.

“Why?” Terra asked.

“Because of reasons. I don’t know.”

 

Sabin listened to the sound of the court mage of the Empire climbing up the stairs of the castle. From all the footsteps, he was sure the man had brought with him at least two soldiers. It was hard to make out the footsteps over the sound of high pitched laughter also emanating from the stairs. Sabin hoped that the hall Terra currently was situated in was soundproof enough that she wouldn’t hear that awful laugh.

Sabin took a glance at Kefka as he emerged from the staircase. The man was a wave of color compared to the brown brick of the castle and yellow dunes of the desert beyond. He wore a face of what Sabin hoped was white makeup. He also wore purple lipstick and red markings around his eyes. Sabin wondered how his makeup wasn’t running from the desert heat. The clown’s hair was the same shade of blonde as Sabin’s own. The garment he was wearing was too garish to put to words.

“Court Mage Kefka,” Sabin asked, “What brings you here?”

“A girl of no importance escaped from us recently,” Kefka said. His voice was high in the most unsettling way possible. “We heard reports that she sought refuge in your castle.”

“I have no clue what you are talking about,” Sabin said. He considered asking Kefka why he was searching for a girl of no importance, but he had a feeling that there was little chance of such a thing going well.

“Well,” Kefka asked, “Are there any unfamiliar girls in the area?”

“I tend not to pay much attention to girls,” Sabin said. He wasn’t sure if Kefka would understand what he was implying. He wasn’t sure if he even wanted Kefka to understand what he was implying.

“I’d recommend paying more attention to the ladies in your area,” Kefka said, “It is what would be best for your kingdom.”

With that, Kefka laughed once more and turned to the door out of the castle.

 

Sabin waited until he could be sure the court mage was out of earshot before he said, “Rachel, you can come out now.” Even though he knew Kefka was far from the castle, it still felt like he could hear Sabin speaking. Even though he knew it probably wasn’t necessary, he spoke barely above a whisper.

“What happened?” Rachel asked as she appeared from what Sabin was fairly sure was one of the most obscure exterior corners of the castle. She matched Sabin’s volume.

“Kefka was here,” Sabin said, “And he knows we have Terra.”

“Oh Goddess,” Rachel said. There was not a single sould in the Returners who was unaware of General Kefka’s reputation.

“He’s probably going to be watching the castle from a distance. I don’t think we can sneak Terra out.”

“We need to make sure that she doesn’t find out about this visit,” Rachel said, “It’ll only worry her.”

“Agreed.”

There was a silence between the two.

“We still need to do something and fast,” Rachel said. Sabin felt the smallest bit of annoyance at Rachel’s stating of the obvious, but he let it pass.

Sabin raised his voice to a bit above a speaking tone.“I don’t know what to do!” he said, “But we need to keep Terra safe somehow.” He had to admit, in the one conversation he had had with the girl thus far, he had gotten attached.

Soon after he finished speaking, Sabin heard a loud banging at the door behind him. Realizing exactly who was making that noise and why, he motioned for the guards standing beside the door to open it.

 

Rachel watched as Terra fell through the now open door she had previously been banging on. Rachel began to move to help Terra up when she saw her catch herself.

“What’s going on?” Terra asked. This was just about the most worried Rachel had ever seen her. Her eyes were wide with fear.

Rachel walked over to Terra. She put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Nothing to worry about. We just had some Returner business to discuss.” Rachel looked over at the horizon to see that the sun was beginning to set. “Terra, honey,” Rachel said, “You should get some sleep.”

While Rachel knew that she was deflecting Terra’s questions, she also knew that the girl desperately needed some shut-eye. On the journey to Figaro castle, they had camped in a tent over night. From what Rachel had been able to see before falling asleep herself, Terra had tossed and turned most of the night.

In that moment, Rachel could see Terra react to her words. Almost as if on cue, the girl’s eyes got droopier. She swayed ever so slightly back and forth. She looked like a child ready for bed.

Rachel wasn’t sure how to feel about just how much she saw Terra as a kid. While she was sure that it had something to do with the few inches as well as the likely almost decade of age she had on Terra, she also felt that it was something else. The girl was dependent in a way that Rachel wasn’t used to seeing from an adult. She had no clue if this was just how Terra was or some side effect of the crown that had rested atop her head.

Given the fact that there was an Imperial general most likely lying in wait near the castle, Rachel didn’t have time to further consider any of this.

“I’ll show you to your bed,” she said to Terra. She had spent enough nights in Figaro Castle that she knew were guests typically slept.

Rachel began walking to one of the peripheral parts of the castle. Slightly behind her and to her side walked Terra. It was a simple enough trip that was only slightly complicated by the conversation the two were having.

“Sabin tells the Empire he’s with them, but he funnels everything they tell him to us,” Rachel said. They were in the stretch of sand right before the section of the castle holding the guest rooms. “I’m basically a liaison between Sabin and the rest of the Returners. It’s less suspicious that way. That’s how I was told to rescue you. The old man in Narshe knew I was the only Returner in the area when you got there.”

“And the Returners fight the Empire?” Terra asked. Rachel wasn’t sure entirely how she couldn’t have picked that up from everything she had told her.

“That’s our goal,” Rachel said, “Stop the spread of the Empire and hopefully one day defeat them.”

“But I’m an imperial soldier!” Terra’s voice held no indignation. All Rachel could hear was fear and concern.

“You’re not anymore,” Rachel said, “The Empire used you. They owned you and took from you the ability to make decisions.”

Terra looked at Rachel with her eyes wide.

“But not anymore. You can make your own decisions now, and I know you’re going to make the right ones.” Rachel could feel vibrations through her body. She thought for a moment that the source of the vibrations was Terra shaking; this thought was quickly dispelled once she realized Terra wasn’t touching her. She stood an entire foot away. Rachel was the one shaking.

Looking up from herself, Rachel could see the sheer worry on Terra’s face at her words. Unfortunately, she had ran out of reassuring things to say.

“There should be some night-wear in the wardrobe,” Rachel said, “There will be breakfast in the morning.”

Rachel turned away from Terra and began walking back to the main hall. Sabin and her had a lot of planning to do.

 

The smell of smoke was what woke Terra up. It was similar to what her own flame smelled of when conjured. There was a subtle difference to the odor of magic fueled flame. It almost smelled sweet.

Thankful that she had ended up falling asleep in her regular clothes, Terra jumped out of bed and ran out the door of the room she was in.

The outside was bright enough and hot enough that it took her a moment to realize that it was night.

Figaro castle was in flames. They were bright orange and clung to the brown brick. The flames only covered parts of the castle, but they spread with each passing second.

Terra brought her arms out in front of her chest and focused on as many flames as she could. She envisioned it extinguishing, and it did. Even where the fire did not extinguish, the flames stopped spreading. Still, much of the castle continued to be aflame.

Terra wondered where this fire had come from. She didn’t think she was prone to accidentally invoking magic in her sleep, but there didn’t seem to be any other possible source. She hoped dearly that no one had gotten hurt.

Terra began to run around as much of the castle as she could and extinguish the flames. As she ran, she noticed panicking guards out of the periphery of her vision. She didn’t see either of the people she recognized to be her friends even as she came close to having ran around the entirety of the castle.

It was only upon hearing a startlingly familiar laugh that Terra stopped her extinguishing. The laugh was high and drove fear into her darkest recesses.

Around 25 feet in front of her was a man dressed as a clown. Terra had as hard a time at recalling the name of this man as she she would have had listing the names of each and every color he wore, but she was sure she had seen him before. She knew he had had power over her. She knew he had hurt her before. She knew he would hurt her friends if given the chance.

She recoiled back, but quickly began running forwards. She barely had to focus as both her cupped palms filled with flame. A moment later, she brought her hands forward and launched the now fully formed fireballs at the man.

One of the two hit. Terra felt strange about seeing a man go aflame, but she didn’t have the time to contemplate her own feelings. She formed two more fireballs in her hands.

Just as she prepared to launch them, the flames atop the man went out with a snap of his fingers. He turned to Terra and glared at her. Instantly, her knees gave out and she fell to the ground. The sheer exhaustion from having run around so much of the castle finally hit her. She felt completely and utterly unable to move.

The man began to walk towards her. He laughed a terribly familiar laugh that sent chills down her spine. She quivered and shook upon hearing it. As the distance between them closed, she felt less and less able to do anything but stare. Even screaming was beyond her current abilities.

It was right as the man got within touching distance of Terra that she heard someone above her from the walkways of the castle say something she couldn’t make out. The clown turned away from her to the source of the voice.

It was a second later that Terra saw Sabin dropkick the clown man. Both of Sabin’s feet connected with the man’s chest. This was only for the smallest moment before Sabin kicked off of the clown’s breastbone.

It was at the sight of this that Terra finally felt able to stand again. The exhaustion that had hit her was not gone, but it felt more distant. It was right as she was back on her feet that she saw Rachel jump down towards the man in makeup, presumably from the same ledge Sabin had just been on. This time, the clown was able to sidestep enough that the dagger Rachel was swinging penetrated only air.

Terra did not blast another fireball at the man out of fear that she would hit Rachel by accident. What happened instead was Sabin once again lunging.

“Kefka!” he yelled, “I’m going to punch you in the throat!” As he charged, Terra could that he was putting significantly more weight on his right food than his left. She could only assume that meant he had landed on his leg wrong. She wanted to cure him of his injury, but Sabin was moving too quickly for her to reliably cast a spell on him.

Terra looked over at Rachel. She stood upright enough that Terra assumed that she hadn’t landed on anything particularly fragile. She was staring out at the soldiers that were running towards them.

There were dozens of them all clad in the same leather uniform. Terra wondered for a moment if she had ever worn that uniform.

Seconds later, the three of them were surrounded by imperial soldiers. The soldiers stood in a circle with each being close enough to the next that there wasn’t a single point Terra, Rachel, or Sabin could run between them. All of the soldiers drew their swords and began advancing. All the while, Sabin was still trying to punch Kefka in the throat.

Terra could practically still hear the laugh of the man she assumed to be named Kefka in her head. Once again, she could barely fathom conjuring up flame. Instead, she focused her efforts on healing Sabin’s injured leg.

She conjured up the energy for a cure spell and began focusing it in Sabin’s direction. It was right when he stood in place for the tiniest of moments between punches that she cast the spell. Almost instantly, she could see a change in his stance. It no longer was lopsided. Terra smiled for a moment at the knowledge that Sabin could once again fight at full capacity.

Terra looked around to see that Rachel was dodging the blows of three soldiers engaged in combat with her. She gave multiple swipes with her dagger, but none landed.

Terra screamed when she saw one of the soldiers hit Rachel on her back with the hilt of his sword. She watched Rachel turn around to the soldier only to be hit again with another hilt. Rachel collapsed. The soldiers continued to stand around her, kicking her from all sides.

At this sight, the sound of the man laughing left Terra’s head. She formed balls of fire in her hands and tried to launch them above the heads of the soldiers in hopes that she would hit the them and not Rachel.

While neither fireball hit, the soldiers seemed to notice they were getting fired upon. They turned to look at the source of the projectiles.

Terra smiled in the knowledge that she had succeeded in getting the soldiers to stop beating Rachel; she felt much more conflicted in the knowledge that the soldiers were now looking at her.

At the same time, Terra saw out of her peripheral vision Sabin being hit by a bolt of lightning originating from the extended fingers of Kefka. Immediately after, Sabin was rushed and surrounded by a nearby group of soldiers.

Kefka turned away from Sabin and began walking towards Terra. This was at the same time that the soldiers who had been tormenting Rachel were advancing towards her. All the other soldiers not preoccupied with beating down Sabin also began approaching.

Terra warmed another few fireballs. She brought her hands up to throw the fire out when she once again heard Kefka’s laughing. Her flames fizzled out almost immediately. The soldiers kept coming.


	3. A Figaro Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party wakes up from being captured. Terra meets her long lost (girl)friend.

Rachel felt soreness all over her body as she stirred from unconsciousness. She could feel the rhythmic bumping of the cart under her going over stone. She tried to move her hands, but only succeeded in rubbing them against the bindings wrapped around them.

She remembered having been surrounded in battle and then beaten into submission. She remembered not being able to get so much as a hit in on any of the soldiers that had rushed her. She remembered right before she had passed out the sight of the soldiers turning from her and advancing upon Terra. She had laid there completely useless as the soldiers had been joined by more of their kind to completely surround Terra. Feelings of being a failure were the last thing she remembered before blacking out.

It took conscious effort to stop thinking about all that and survey her current situation. She opened her eyes to see the wooden inside of the cart. She was laying on her side with her cheek to the rough wood. To her left, she could barely make out Sabin; to her right was Terra. Rachel couldn't make out either of their faces. Worrying the worst, she looked to their abdomens for signs of breathing.

After seeing the stomachs of both her friends rising and falling, she felt relieved. She dared to sit upright and sneak her head up above the low wall of the cart.

She could see that they were in a town. The blue roofs of the buildings in her vicinity made her assume they were in South Figaro. There were people lined up on the sides of the street as if they were attending a parade.

What made Rachel certain she wasn’t in a parade was the look every single person in the crowd had. Each person she looked at had fear written on their faces. Even from the distance she saw them from, she could see that their eyes were wide and their mouths agape.

As Rachel’s eye wandered, she noticed a man in the crowd. He stood out to her because he was at least a foot taller than everyone else she saw. He was wearing black as night metal armor that covered all Rachel could see of him.

A second or two after she first looked at him, he turned and began walking away.

Rachel tried to bring her head up higher so she could see more of this man as he moved further back in the crowd. It was as she did this that she heard a chuckling voice from the front of the cart say, “You can’t be awake yet!”

Instantly, her eyelids got heavier. Within seconds, she was unconscious once again.

 

Terra awoke to a prison cell. For a moment, she wondered if she was in Figaro castle. This was primarily because the brick the walls of the cell were made of was the same color as the brick that made up the walls of the aforementioned castle.

One side of the cell was not made of brick. Instead, it was bars that ran from the floor to the ceiling. There was a door to the cell swung completely open almost as if to mock them. Beyond the doorway, Terra could see a hallway made of the same bricks. She could also see a staircase of the same color leading up to what she assumed was the rest of wherever they were.

Turning her attention back to the cell, Terra looked to both sides of herself to see that Rachel and Sabin were both there. Both of them looked beat up and tired, but they were breathing. They were in chains that were attached to the bottom of the floor. There was enough slack they probably could stand, but not much more. The same could be said about the chains bound to Terra’s own wrists.

She looked across the cell to see a woman sitting on the ground. Her hair was blonde like gold. She wore yellow pants with a blue shirt and a yellow jacket. Her hands were similarly bound behind her in chains.

The woman was looking right at Terra. Her face was the prettiest Terra had ever seen. Her eyes were blue and full of what Terra thought was determination. Her face was as beautiful as it was angular.

Terra immediately felt safer upon looking at this woman. She didn’t know a single thing about her, but she was almost sure she knew this woman from somewhere. The room felt warmer at the sight of her.

“Terra!” the woman said in what Terra wasn’t sure was a whisper or a shout.

A smile came to her face upon hearing the woman’s voice.

“Terra,” the woman asked, “are you okay?” In the time that Terra smiled, she had forgotten to respond to the woman.

She looked at the woman with wide eyes. She had no clue what to say to her.

“Terra,” the woman asked again, “are you alright? Did Kefka do something to you?” Terra could hear the woman rattling against her chains with worry.

“I lost my memories.” The smile on Terra’s face dissipated, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are.”

There was a look of shock on the woman’s face. This was very quickly replaced by one of sadness which was eventually supplanted by anger.

“I’m going to kill Kefka when I get the chance,” the woman said. Terra smiled a weak smile at that.

“I feel...” Terra thought for the right words. “...safe looking at you,”

“We’ve known each other since we were kids.” the woman sounded distraught. Terra swore she could see a tear or two forming in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Terra said.

“It’s not your fault.”

Terra didn’t know how to respond.

“My name’s Celes,” the woman said.

Celes opened her mouth seemingly to say something more, but she didn’t. She looked away from Terra for the first time to Terra’s friends beside her. Terra looked to her friends to see they were awake. For how long they had been awake, she wasn’t sure. She had been practically entranced looking at and talking to Celes.

Without any warning, Rachel practically screamed, “You’re the bitch that sacked Maranda!” This startled everyone else out of the silence. She almost instantly was up on both feet. If her hands had not been bound, she probably would have lunged at Celes.

Terra gasped. Even though she didn’t know what the word “sacked” meant, she could tell it wasn’t good.

“Rachel,” Sabin said, “I think we all need to calm down. We’re in an unfamiliar place and our-” Like Rachel, he got up from the ground.

Celes jumped up to match the two. With volume that spoke contrary to what Sabin had just recommended, Celes cut him off saying, “I was a gen-” She stopped talking mid-sentence. Terra could hear the sound of approaching laughter.

 

 

Celes felt the urge to jump out of her restraints at the sound of Kefka’s laugh. This was both so she could strangle Rachel and so she could grab Terra and run in whichever direction would take her far away.

As Kefka entered the room, the first reason quickly fled to the back of her mind. He was dressed the same way he always was with his robe as loose as it was unfashionable. As he practically skipped into the cell, Celes immediately noticed that he had one hand behind his back. He looked around the room.

“I’m delighted to see everyone has gotten to know each other,” Kefka said, “I’d absolutely hate to waste my time introducing you all.” His sweeping gaze fell upon Celes. “General Celes. I’m glad to see that you have been reunited with your… friend.”

It was after Kefka turned his gaze to Terra that Celes felt the urge to struggle against her restraints triple in strength.

Kefka put on one of the widest smiles Celes had ever seen from him as he said, “Terra, dear, are you ready?” He was already giggling.

Terra shrunk further away from him. This was difficult given that she was already sitting against one of the walls of the cell. Celes wished desperately she could be across the room to comfort the poor girl. “F-for what?” Terra asked.

Kefka erupted into a chuckle right before he answered, “To burn your friends to death of course!” With that, he pulled his hand out from behind his back.

In his hands was a ring of metal. It was large enough it would fit around a person’s head. Celes recognized it as a slave crown.

The room fell silent as Kefka walked towards Terra. He towered over her. Celes could see tears in her eyes. Kefka reached down and grabbed Terra by the arm, forcing her upright. Terra screamed.

“You look so scared,” Kefka said, “Let me do something about that.” He released his hold of Terra’s arm and grabbed her chin. He held her in place as he brought the crown in his other hand up towards Terra’s head. Everyone else in the room was audibly struggling against their chains.

Suddenly, Celes could hear the sound of whirring in the distance. It was high pitched and unlike anything else she had ever heard. She felt some relief as she saw Kefka turn towards the sound.

“Mustn't get distracted,” Kefka said as he turned back to the rest of them, “Prepare to die little chickies.”

In the moment that followed, the door to the greater prison chambers flew open. Falling down the stairs before them was the body of an imperial soldier. The whirring Celes had heard was not distant anymore. It was right there at the top of the stairs.

“It’s time to get distracted,” Kefka said. With that, he threw the slave crown away and turned to the stairs.

A man dressed in full blue and green armor strolled down the stairs leading up to the prison cell. His armor looked to be dyed and made from stitched up leather. In one hand, he held a crossbow. In the other, he held what was perhaps the third most frightening contraption Celes had ever seen.

It was like a sword in that it was made of metal and had a hilt and a blade, but that was where the similarities ended. The blade had what Celes could have sworn were metal teeth. They spun around it so fast that she wasn’t sure how she even could tell they were teeth. The whirring she had heard earlier was coming from this thing.

The armored man advanced forward and aimed his crossbow through the open door of the cell. Without saying a word, he fired the bolt in it off at Kefka.

Kefka gave a yelp as the bolt hit him. He looked around for a moment before he reached into a pocket in the garment he was wearing and pulled out what looked like a small egg.

“Warp stone,” Kefka said, “Never leave the capital without it.” With that, he crushed the egg in his hands. A bright light poured out of it for an instant before fading. When Celes looked back to where he had been, he was gone.

The man in blue opened the door to the cell and walked through. Instantly, she could see the man she vaguely remembered to be named Sabin perk up.

“Bro!” Sabin excitedly yelled as the man drew closer. Celes had known Sabin from a few meetings he had had with imperial officials. He had mentioned off-hand having a brother, but Celes hadn’t expected this brother to be fully armored with a crossbow and some sort of chainsword.

“Sabin!” the man shouted as he drew closer. Sabin smiled as his brother tossed his tools aside and hugged him. “I’m here to save you.” He looked around at the others in chains. “And your friends too.” The hug looked awkward given that Sabin still had his hands chained behind his back.

The hug lasted until another man entered the cell. How no one had heard him coming, Celes didn’t know. He was clad in all black plate armor. Celes could vaguely remember this man being a mercenary, but her memory beyond that was failing her. He stood taller than anyone else in the room. At his side was one of the largest swords Celes had seen. It was the same color black as his armor. She felt ever so slightly envious of such a mighty looking sword.

“I think we should get going soon,” the man said. His voice was gruff though Celes could pick out a familiar quality to it. He sounded like a young imperial recruit trying to sound more manly than he actually was.

In the man’s arms were Celes’ sword and a pair of daggers. He set them down on the floor and he pulled a key from a pouch on his waist. He went to work unlocking the four of them in chains. After a few seconds, they were all free.

Celes rubbed at her wrists. The skin was raw and cracked from the days she had spent in chains. Suddenly, the pain and irritation disappeared. She looked at her wrists to see the redness and cuts fading into the same paleness as the rest of her skin. She looked up to see Terra looking at her. Terra had a shy look on her face, but it was clear she had just cast a cure spell.

Celes walked the few steps across the cell to Terra and put her arms around her. She hugged about as tight as one would expect a girl who hadn’t seen her best friend in a year to hug.

As Celes hugged Terra, she looked over the girl’s shoulder to see Rachel glaring at her. There was an anger in the woman’s eyes that Celes didn’t like seeing.

This did not stop Celes from continuing the hug. As she hugged, she could feel Terra moving her arms. She assumed that this was her casting cure on everyone else in the room. This also did not stop Celes from continuing the hug. What ended up stopping said hug was the sound of what Celes assumed to be guards running down the hall.

“We’re going to have to fight our way out,” the man in the blue armor said. He turned to Celes, Terra, and Rachel and said, “I’m Edgar by the way.”

Celes ended the hug and reached down to the floor of the room they were in. She picked up her runic sword and spent a moment inspecting it for damages. At the same time, Rachel was doing the same to her daggers.

The inspections stopped shortly after the door to the cell area was once again forced open. This time, it was by a a soldier. It was right as this soldier got into view of the cell the six of them were in that Edgar revved up his chain device.

It was without a single word that this soldier turned away from the cell and walked back up the stairs.

“Let’s get going,” Celes said. She was still accustomed to her authority as a general.

 

The fighting was not nearly as difficult as Celes had expected it to be. Edgar and the man in black were leading them through the entrance way they had cleared out on their way in. It was a curving mess of hallways that Edgar had tried to explain the pattern of. Celes hadn’t paid enough attention to his words to understand it. She just trusted him to point the five of them the right way. This was complicated at least somewhat by the fact that the supposedly cleared out hallways Edgar kept pointing them to were filled with soldiers intent on not letting the six of them out.

Celes had smiled as she had seen the agape mouths of the others in the group when she had summoned up her first gust of cold. This smile had quickly left her face upon the realization that Terra’s mouth was also agape. For the slightest few seconds, she had forgotten that Terra had lost her memories. The realization that Terra didn’t even remember that Celes had magic hit her hard.

Still, she continued to blast ice. She had a feeling she was going to be spending a lot of her future around the five people she was within at that moment. Impressing them was one of her priorities. She also wanted to display her Runic abilities, but none of the soldiers they were going up against seemed to have access to magic.

As Celes focused on her own magic, she also snuck a look at Terra. She felt the wave of sadness pass over her at what she saw. Terra was conjuring up balls of flame and then lobbing them at the soldiers. This was almost nothing compared to what Terra had been able to do in the past.

Magic had always come quicker to Terra than Celes. Her fire had always traveled further and lasted longer than Celes’ ice. Her cure spells consistently could heal graver injuries than Celes’ could. The magic Terra was doing at that moment was like the magic she had done when the two of them had been children.

Deciding that she didn’t want to think about this, she looked around to the other members of her party. It seemed that Edgar had stashed his chain device somewhere as he wasn’t holding it. Instead, he was wielding a repeater crossbow. He shot his arrows off at the soldiers quickly and reloaded quickly. He shot his arrows focusing on the left side of the corridor before them. This most likely had to do with his brother battling soldiers on the right side of the hall.

The man dressed in all black was primarily fighting the soldiers that were advancing upon them from where they had been fleeing from. There were considerably less soldiers in this direction than Celes would have expected considering the fact that the direction they were advancing from she was pretty sure led to the rest of the facility.

Rachel was next to the man in black. She was swiping her daggers at the soldiers the armored man wasn’t currently fighting. Celes felt a bit of guilty pleasure at the sight of the soldiers blocking and avoiding each of her strikes.

Celes turned back to the combat, but she occasionally took peaks at what was going on behind her. It was during one of those peaks that she saw Rachel finally land a hit on a soldier. Celes’ satisfaction returned from its momentary break upon seeing the man in black being the one to finish this soldier off.

Beside Celes was Terra. Looking at her body in battle made Celes realize just how thin Terra had gotten. She was wearing the same red and pink outfit as she always did, but it looked downright baggy on her. Celes had always had a few inches as well as a few pounds of muscle on Terra, but the girl looked downright scrawny now.

It was after a great deal of fighting that their group reached a staircase. Its height made Celes wonder just how underground they were. It was regal like the house of a nobleman and very tall. It was tall enough she couldn’t make out exactly what was at the top of it.

Perhaps the best part of the staircase was the fact that there were no soldiers standing on it. In fact, there weren’t even any soldiers in sight. Celes hadn’t much idea how this was, but she didn’t complain.

The members of the party began to walk up the stairs. It was seemingly by chance that Terra and her were the last ones to begin ascending.

“Would you like help up the stairs?” Celes asked. It felt natural to ask Terra something like this considering that she looked like a errant gust of wind could stumble her.

Terra gave her a shy nod. Celes hadn’t expected the sort of hesitation that she could see. Still, she wrapped an arm around Terra’s shoulder and let her lean onto her as they walked up the stairs.

Celes weakened her grip as the two of them ascended the stairs. Judging by how quickly Terra was moving, it seemed more apparent to her that Terra didn’t need her help quite as much as she had assumed she would. Still, Celes kept her arm around her. Terra didn’t seem to mind.

It was close to the top of the stairs that Celes decided to look up to see what her allies were doing.

Most of them were bent over panting from being out of breath. The only exception to this was Rachel. She flashed Celes a death glare. Celes assumed it stemmed from their argument from before.

 

Getting out of the city was the simplest part of the party’s escape. The room they had entered into from the top of the stairs had been attached to a hidden door to the outskirts of town. Why this entire underground complex had been built, Terra had no idea.

During the entire way out, she had stood close to Celes. She felt safer around her than she could ever remember being. It was odd to her that she felt this way about a person she couldn’t remember anything about, but she kept these feelings to herself.

Everyone else also seemed to be keeping their thoughts private given that no one else in the group was speaking.

Eventually, they all stopped walking. Terra assumed that the six of them had stopped once one of them had determined they were far enough from the city they had just fled that they could be sure no one would stumble upon them.

The first to break the silence was the man dressed in all black. “You are all out of the city. My contract has been fulfilled.” He spoke in a grizzled and grim voice.

Despite this, the man didn’t leave immediately. He stood around as if he was waiting for someone to say something to him. Eventually he turned from all of them and said, “Okay. Bye.” His voice sounded almost embarrassed. He walked off.

The silence in the group reemerged as the man walked away. Terra eventually found herself being the one to break it. “Who was that?” she asked. This was more out of curiosity than anything else.

“He was a mercenary I hired to help me free you guys,” Edgar said, “His name is Shadow.”

There were a few murmurs amongst the others about having heard of the man before.

“By the way,” Sabin asked, “How did you even know we were _captured_? Did the Empire advertise it?” He sounded ashamed to say the word ‘captured’.

“No,” Edgar said, “I live up in Mount Koltz, and I have a telescope.” He smiled as he spoke.

“I think Terra and Celes should be worried,” Sabin said. Terra could tell that there was a joke somewhere in what he said, but she didn’t know exactly what it was. She had a feeling that she would have recognized the joke if she had her memories.

There was a silence between the now five of them that lasted a while. It was Sabin that ended up breaking it. He asked, “What do we do now?”

“Figaro castle has been taken,” Edgar said, “South Figaro, as I’m sure you all noticed, has also been captured.” Edgar sounded sad to say those words, but it didn’t feel like he had the time to let it get to him.

There was an intense look of shame on Sabin’s face at the news of the castle’s capture. He looked to be approaching tears.

“What about the Returners?” Rachel asked.

“Their base was stormed just this morning. I saw an old bearded man being led out in chains.”

“Banon!” Rachel exclaimed. A moment later, a glare came to her eye, “How the hell do you know where the Returner base is?” she asked Edgar.

“With a telescope, you can find anything if you’re bored enough.”

“Do you know if Narshe has been captured?” Rachel asked.

“I actually don’t know that one. There’s a mountain in the way. I haven’t quite figured out a workaround for that one yet. ”

“So they might not have been invaded,” Sabin said through the feelings he wore in his voice, “We should go and check the place out. We need to find out what happened to the esper.”

“Just one more question,” Rachel said, “Why are we saying our plans in front of an imperial?”

Celes wasted no time before answering, “I defected. The Empire crossed a line, and I turned against them. That’s why I was in chains down there.”

“Doesn’t change the fact you razed a town,” Rachel said. She was getting even louder.

“I did not raze a town!” Celes said, “You could go to Maranda today and find it unharmed.” She matched Rachel’s volume.

“The men were all drafted,” Rachel almost screamed. It seemed that she didn’t remember that they were probably being searched for.

“We don’t have time for this!” Terra just about shouted, cutting Celes off from whatever retort she was going to make. She calmed her voice, “We need to get to Narshe.” She felt afraid of the sudden anger she had just released.

Terra looked around to see that the rest of the party had looks of shock on their faces. The only exception was Celes. For some reason, she was smiling.

“It’s for the best that we travel in a small group,” Rachel said, “That way, we can move quicker and avoid detection.”

“Terra needs to go since you’re checking on the esper,” Sabin said, “And Celes should go too since she has access to magic.”

“No way,” Rachel said, “I’m not going anywhere with that bitch.”

“I don’t want to go with you either,” Celes said.

Terra felt tears beginning to well up in her eyes at the argument that ensued. Even though she didn’t know either of the two parties well, she hurt from seeing them quarrel.

It was only a few seconds later that both women turned to Terra and saw her crying. They looked back at each other.

“Okay. We’ll go together,” they said in near unison.


	4. Esper Checkup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel, Terra, and Celes travel to (and through) Narshe to ensure the esper doesn't fall into Imperial hands. Tensions rise over Celes' past.

The journey to Narshe was one filled with passive aggression and stress as well as a brief battle with a magical cave machine. Throughout the trip, Terra listened as Celes and Rachel traded insults with each other that they presumably thought were veiled enough for her to not understand. The nights in the tents were awkward with Celes and Rachel not being willing to say more than three words to each other at a time. It was fortunate that they alternated night shifts for watching for danger.

It was after a couple days of walking that they got to Narshe. It was Rachel’s suggestion that they scout out around the town to see the details of the occupation. She had pulled a spyglass from her bag that Edgar had gifted her and went to work seeing how Narshe was fairing.

Rachel spent what felt to Terra like an hour just looking through the spyglass and occasionally telling the other two what she saw. How Rachel was able to make out anything through the snow currently pouring down, Terra didn’t know. Still, Rachel was able to tell that there were scores of imperial soldiers in the town. Many of them wandered amongst the main street of the town. There were also many near the entrance to the mine in the back of the town.

“We need to hope that General Leo is leading the occupation,” Celes said, “He’s good to the towns he occupies.”

“I don’t think anyone who takes a town by force can be a saint,” Rachel said, “Only a little better than the competition.” Terra recognized the insult in Rachel’s words. She tried her best to avoid making it obvious that she did.

Despite all of Rachel’s spying, she hadn’t been able to spot the esper. Terra hoped desperately it was still lying in the cave she vaguely remembered it being in.

“We should be able to sneak into town through the caves,” Rachel said, “We were able to exit through this one hidden entrance. We just have to hope it can be opened from the outside.”

As Terra followed her to the outskirts of the town, she wondered how Rachel managed to stay warm. She was pretty sure Celes and herself used their magic to control something about their body temperatures, but she was pretty sure Rachel had no such powers. She probably sustained herself through the rivalry she held with Celes.

 

The insides of the caves were similar to how Terra remembered them to be. They were tight, narrow and winding. The torches on the walls were still burning. How this was, she wasn’t sure.

It was after a fair while of the three of them walking further into the caves that Terra heard high pitched voices in the distance yell “Stop!”

Rachel, Celes, and her stopped walking. It was within seconds that a small white creature holding a spear approached them. He came up to Terra’s waist and was covered in fuzzy fur with red wings and a red ball as an antannea. She couldn’t help but think about how cute he looked.

“It’s you guys,” the creature said, “I thought you were soldiers, kupo.”

“One of us is,” Rachel said. Celes probably shot her a glare at that one. Terra didn’t know for sure given that she was standing behind the two.

Another creature approached from the distance. She was identical to the first one with the exception of her fur being a shade darker and her carrying a flail instead of a spear. She looked to be a bit smaller than her counterpart.

“Are these the humans we saved a few days ago?” the darker one asked.

“Two of them are,” the spear wielding one said, “And they brought a… friend?” It was clear that he wasn’t sure what Celes was in relation to them.

“Thank you for helping us a few days ago,” Rachel said. Terra was surprised she didn’t say something sarcastic. She also wasn’t sure if it actually had been a few days ago that they had been rescued. She couldn’t remember the exact number of days ago it was, and she couldn’t remember the exact range of “a few”.

“Thank you,” Terra said. Considering the semantics of the prior sentence wasn’t likely to be a good use of her time. As such, she dropped the topic.

“Thanks,” Celes said. Terra wasn’t entirely sure why she specifically was thanking them. Celes hadn’t been saved by them as far as Terra remembered.

“Are you guys looking for the ice chicken?” the spear wielding one asked.

“Mog,” the darker one said, “I think they’re talking about the esper, kupo.”

“That makes sense, kupo,” Mog said.

“We’re looking for the esper,” Rachel said, “Trying to make sure it hasn’t fallen into _imperial_ hands.” Terra imagined Rachel glaring at Celes.

“The townspeople moved it up to the cliffs,” the darker moogle said, “I don’t think the soldiers have found it yet. They’ve been looking in the mines, kupo.”

“Molulu,” Mog asked, “Do you think you can tell them the exact spot?”

“Furthest cliff you can find. It’s past a field with a bunch of rocks sticking out of it,” Molulu said.

“Thank you,” Rachel said. A moment later, she asked, “Sorry, but since when have moogles been able to talk?”

“Since strange people visited the two of us in our dreams and taught us how to, kupo,” Molulu said. It hadn’t ever occurred to Terra that it could have been strange for moogles to be able to talk.

“Who’s been in your dreams?” Terra asked.

“We’ll tell you that on your way back, kupo,” Mog said, “You should get to the chicken before the soldiers find it.”

 

Rachel ended up being the one leading the trek through the rest of the caves. This was both because she had the most experience with the caves from her last time in them and because getting to the cliffs behind Narshe required them sneaking through portions of the town of Narshe. It just so happened that she was the local sneaking expert.

It had taken them a few minutes to reach one of the many exits to the caves. From what Rachel remembered of Narshe and what the moogles had told her, they were going to have to go a ways through town. In fact, they were going to have to go through the main street of the town. As such, they were going to need disguises.

Sneaking into town, mugging a few of the shorter soldiers, tying them up, and taking their clothes was the easy part. Rachel was able to accomplish all of this on her own with the other two staying back in the caves. While she was doing all this, she tried her hardest to avoid ruminating over her now deceased boyfriend. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t help but be reminded of how her boyfriend had taught her so much about stealing clothes as well as sneaking around. Still, Rachel tried her hardest to stop thinking about him by the time that she got back to her allies in the caves. Her eyes were still puffy, but her tears did stop by the time that she was within sight of the two other women.

The way through town was more complicated than Rachel would have wanted. Essentially, they would have to walk over a bridge and find some way from the other side of the bridge down to the main street of Narshe. It was only then that they’d be able to get to the mines and thus to the cliffs holding the esper.

“I don’t like the hat,” Terra said as she held the offending item in her hands, “Can I sneak in without it?” She had put on the rest of the uniform without hesitation, but the hat seemed to be a different matter. Her words sounded much more like a plea than they did a question.

“Terra,” Celes said, “Everyone in town knows about the green haired girl who came in a few days ago wearing magitek armor. You need to wear the hat.” It frustrated Rachel just how much better Celes was at communicating things to Terra than she was.

“Okay,” Terra relented. With that, she put the cap on. A moment later, Celes went to work stowing all the loose strands of her hair under the folds of the cap.

“Let’s get going,” Rachel said as the three filed out of the cave.

Moving in the uniform was not nearly as difficult as Rachel had thought it would be. She had always assumed that the uniforms of soldiers would be tight and restrictive, but they were surprisingly flexible. Oddly enough, they didn’t have any padding for the winter. Rachel felt some small bit of pity for the soldiers stationed in Narshe.

Celes looked the most natural out of all of them in the uniform. She stood tall but comfortable. She walked in a way the most befitting a soldier Rachel had ever seen. Her steps were long and confident. Rachel assumed that this had something to do with the fact that Celes had been a general. Rachel swallowed her pride and tried to imitate Celes’ mannerisms for the time being.

In looks, Terra was the opposite of Celes. She stood small and meek. Her steps were tiny, shy, and rapid. Furthermore, the uniform she was wearing looked downright baggy on her.

The walk to the main street of the town was simple enough. They crossed the bridge and then managed to cut through a seemingly abandoned house down to the street. Rachel recognized it as the house of her contact Arvis. She tried to avoid thinking about where he had probably been taken to.

The three of them exited the front of the house and took the stairs down to the street level. From there, they walked to the main street. The majority of the soldiers in town seemed to be concentrated in said street with few in the periphery of town. Of course, that made things significantly more difficult for them.

The town was currently far from the most beautiful Rachel had ever seen it. While the same tall buildings with snow covered roofs and candles in their windows stood dividing the streets, the contents of said streets were radically different. The people of the town were completely out of sight. All Rachel could see were soldiers in the streets. They took occasional glances at the three of them. Unfortunately, the falling snow seemed to have slowed compared to before when they had traversed through the caves. It did little to obscure their visibility.

For whatever reason, all Rachel knew about social interactions flew out the windows. She couldn’t discern if they were suspicious of them or if they just looked at all of their fellow soldiers walking the street like this. She could feel her breathing quicken as she continued to go down the street.

Her own breathing was not the only one to accelerate. Rachel could hear Terra’s breath also increase in speed. What worried her was the speed with which the girl’s breathing increased. It was sharp without any signs whatsoever of slowing down.

Under her breath, Celes asked Terra, “What’s the matter? Are you okay?” Her voice sounded as empathetic as one could manage with a whisper.

“Need... to... take.. the.. hat... off…” Terra said between gasps of air, “Feels… like.. the... crown...”

“You can’t,” Rachel whispered, “If you take it off, everyone on the street will realize we’re fakes in seconds.” She looked around as discreetly as possible. The soldiers still seemed to be shooting them occasional glances.

“Gotta...” was all Terra could get out between gasps. With that, she reached up towards her head.

Before Terra’s hands could even get to the cap, Celes muttered some words under her breath and waved a hand at Terra with what looked to be the tiniest motion possible.

Instantly, Terra’s hands dropped to her sides. Her breathing slowed. Rachel took a look at Terra’s face to see it had lost the panic from before. Her eyelids were drooping slightly.

Rachel also looked around to see soldiers that were beginning to look at them a bit more intensely. As such, she gestured for her two traveling partners to get moving.

As they walked, Rachel leaned over to Celes and asked, “What did you do to Terra?” She tried her best to keep her anger under control.

“Very weak sleep spell. She’s awake... just calmer,” Celes said. Frustration peppered her voice.

“Did you have to use fucking magic on her?” Rachel asked. She tried her best to keep her volume to a minimum.

“It didn’t seem like you could calm her down, and I didn’t think I could either,” Celes said, “Like you said, we would have gotten caught if she had taken her helmet off.” The soldiers in the street had stopped looking at them.

Not sure what else to do, Rachel dropped the issue.

 

It was a fair bit of a walk to get to the cliffs behind Narshe. The journey to the cliffs had consisted of a trip through the mines, up the hill that Narshe was nestled in, and through a field of rocky outcroppings.

All the while, Celes had no one to talk to. Given the spell that Terra was under, she was not able to hold any sort of conversation more complicated than plain niceties. It was probably going to be at minimum a few more minutes before the spell wore off. Celes didn’t try to talk to Rachel given the sheer amount of hostilities the two had already exchanged during the trip.

The snow all around them, both the snow falling from the sky and the snow on the ground, was nice to look at. It was rare that they would get snow down in Vector, only soot from the factories. The distant cliffs were foreboding in just how far away they looked. Down below, there was a valley that she couldn’t quite see the bottom of.

In the near distance was the esper. Celes would have ran to it if it hadn’t been for the rickety bridge they had to cross to get to it as well as the fact that it was only a few feet from the edges of the cliff it was situated on. As such, she walked.

While Celes had heard about an esper trapped in ice, seeing it in real life was something entirely different. It stood at least two people high and mostly resembled a bird.

Its lower body was like a snake. It had fur on the end of its tail and wings sprouting from what Celes assumed was its back. Close to its wings were four claws. Its head looked like a chicken with a snake tongue wearing a helmet. Color-wise, the creature was a mix of reds and blues. Its helmet looked to be made of gold. It had an undecipherable look in its icy blue eyes.

Celes felt ambient magic in the air, but she assumed that this was normal all things considered. An unfortunate part of the rarity of her abilities was the fact that there usually wasn’t anyone to consult when she had questions. Turning her mind away from magic, Celes looked at Terra.

The heaviness in her eyes was completely gone. While her face was still in a mostly neutral expression, her eyes were wide and focused on the esper. She began walking in long strides towards it.

Given that it was only a few feet away from the edge of the cliff, Celes couldn’t help but worry about Terra falling from the cliff. She stepped forward to grab the girl’s hand. As she stepped, she noticed something else happening to Terra.

Fine tufts of pink-ish white hair were growing from all over Terra’s body. Where the uniform was, it puffed out and filled the previous bagginess. Her hair turned from its normal (at least for her) green to pink and grew outwards.

Before anything more of this transformation happened, Celes grabbed Terra’s hand. Almost instinctively, Terra pulled back. Celes could see that her face had changed. While the expression was still neutral, her features were animalistic. Her nose was like that of a cat. Her eyes were a sickly yellow. Her mouth was open to display pointed teeth.

“What the hell did your spell do?” Rachel asked from behind her. This time, she sounded more shocked than angry.

The transformation stopped, leaving Terra a rather strange looking girl covered in pink fur with what almost looked like a cat face.

She looked at Celes for a moment before turning back to the esper. She raised her free hand at the ice encasing said esper before whispering a word and bringing forth a stream of fire.

Almost immediately, the ice began melting. The water fell to the snow below and began melting depressions in it. All the while, the esper seemed to stare at them. The ice encasing it soon began to give off thick steam, obscuring Celes’ view of the esper.

“I think it’s the esper doing it,” Celes said. Seeing Terra’s magic at the same capacity it had been before Kefka had taken her away was on some level relieving. Of course, she wasn’t able to enjoy that relief much given that Terra was most likely under the control of a giant primordial bird.

All the while, Celes continued to hold Terra’s hand. As Terra sustained the flames, Celes could see the transformation she had underwent reversing. The fur that she had grown was shrinking back into her body. Her hair was darkening from the pink it currently was. Celes hoped desperately Terra’s face was also returning to its normal form.

By the time that Terra’s hair had returned to its normal green, the ice around the side of the esper facing them was mostly melted. Rapidly, Terra’s beam of flame began to run dry. It trickled down until there was nothing more than a small spout of flame and then to hardly more than the flame of a match head. Soon after, it went out. Almost instantly, Terra collapsed back. Celes knelt down into the snow as she caught her.

It was seconds after this that the one wing the esper had free of the ice flapped. The strongest gust of air Celes had ever felt ensued. If she hadn’t been sitting down, she would have worried about being blown off the cliff. She looked back to see that Rachel had been knocked prone. Fortunately, the girl had stayed a fair distance from the ledges. As such, she was not in particular danger of falling.

The noise that followed this was the sound of ice cracking. Celes looked up to see cracks forming in the ice still encasing the esper. The cracks spread over the rest of the ice over the course of the next few seconds. The esper seemed to puff its body up for a small second and then the ice shattered.

The winged beast looked so much larger outside of the ice than it had within it. It’s previously thin serpentine body looked powerful and full of life. It stood with the lower portion of its body coiled up. Celes watched as the esper looked down upon her and Terra through the falling snow. Its eyes were filled with an emotion completely unrecognizable.

Without any warning, it flapped both its wings, uncoiled its tail, and took to the air. It rose up high and then stayed there for a few seconds. The flapping of its wings was slow and rhythmic. Soon after the hovering, the esper took off. It went south towards town, but flew on past it. Within a minute, the esper was out of view.

Celes and Rachel laid there for a few moments in silence over what had just transpired. Terra was still unconscious. A few times Celes looked back at Rachel. She had the same dazed expression on her face that Celes did.

Rachel broke the silence between them when she said, “I guess the esper is out of imperial hands now.”  
Celes laughed a surprisingly hard laugh. Even with the feud they had going, she had to admit that Rachel’s words were funny. Eventually, she stopped laughing and instead considered her current situation.

“We should probably get going,” Celes said, “I’m sure the soldiers in town are going to come up here to investigate.”

With that, she got up from the ground. She then bent down to pick up Terra. For once, she was a bit grateful of just how much weight the girl had lost in recent months.

“Let’s get going,” Celes said as she held Terra in her arms. The uniform Terra was wearing looked even more baggy oh her in that moment than it had before.

The run back to town was surprisingly uneventful. Getting back to the mine and then through it was quick with hardly a single soldier in their way. Getting through town was something different altogether. Soldiers were rushing towards the entrance to the mine from the main street of Narshe. They stood like a sea of people moving in the opposite direction the three had to go to. Fortunately, the soldiers were moving out of their way. This gave them a healthy radius with which to not get trampled. Celes didn’t understand why the soldiers were avoiding them until she remembered it looked to them like she was carrying an injured soldier in her arms.

The rest of the walk back to the house they had to cut through was uneventful. The snow fall had slowed down. The town was exactly the same outside of the fact that most of the streets were deserted. It was just as they turned to the street with the stairs up to this house that things got complicated.

On the street was a man in a green overcoat with green pants and a green shirt. His skin was dark and his hair blonde. He stood tall with a sword on his hip. His name was General Leo Cristophe. Celes would have recognized him anywhere. He had practically adopted both Terra and Celes when they had been young. For years, he had cared for them. Even later, he had always kept an eye on them as they had risen through the imperial ranks.

In that moment, Celes smiled at the sight of him and the knowledge that he was okay. Still, she hoped that he wouldn’t recognize her or Terra.

She looked behind herself to Rachel and tried to mouth, “Act natural.” Whether Rachel would get it, she wasn’t sure.

It was as she turned back to the way out that she saw that General Leo had turned to the three of them and was now looking at them. He looked full of concern most likely at the ‘soldier’ Celes carried in her arms. Celes tried to keep her head down even though she knew that probably wasn’t going to help.

A few seconds later, Celes received confirmation that she had failed in keeping herself under notice.

“Soldiers,” General Leo asked, “are you three okay?”

Celes waited for Rachel to speak. She knew her own voice would blow their cover faster than she was already blowing it.

“She got injured when the monster attacked,” Rachel said pointing to Terra, “We’re taking her to the infirmary right now.”

“The infirmary is _that_ way,” Leo said as he pointed a finger up to a direction opposite from that Rachel and Celes were facing. He looked a bit closer at Terra. “And her armor is not damaged at all.”

Celes had no clue what she would have said to this. She hoped that Rachel would have some sort of response.

“Privates, what’s the matter?” There was a concern readily present in his voice, “Let me see your injured comrade.” He stepped forward with a burst of speed and looked directly down at Terra.

“Terra?” Leo said. Both concern and surprise dominated his voice, “Why are you…?” He looked up from Terra to see Celes’ face.

His eyes went wide. For one of the first times in Celes’ life, she saw General Leo shocked speechless. It felt like time stood still. Celes considered the benefits of just rushing past him and trying to get as far out of town as possible but ultimately elected not to do so. It would cause more problems that they already had.

Eventually, General Leo seemed to find the words he wanted, “I.” He stopped and started a new sentence, “You.” Once again, he stopped and started anew, “Is Terra alright?”

“She’s out of MP,” Celes said, “General Leo, we really need to get out of here.” She wasn’t used to lying to General Leo or saying his name without the title. She didn’t want to start either at that moment.

There was a moment of hesitation before Leo answered, “Just go.” He had put up the emotional barrier in his voice that Celes had heard him use many times before. He moved out of their way. The three of them walked past him to the stairs they had to go up. Celes turned back to see him flashing her a look. It said to her, “Take care of Terra.”

The rest of the walk back was fairly simple. They got to the cave where they had changed, they quickly stripped off their uniforms and put back on their regular clothes. Ultimately, they decided to leave the stolen uniforms in the caves.

During their way out, they briefly saw the Mog and Molulu. The moogles wished them luck and explained that they needed to defend their nests as well as teach the others of their species how to speak. A few minutes after this, Celes remembered that the two moogles had promised to tell them about the people in their dreams. Unfortunately, she was fairly sure they didn’t have the time to go back and ask. The odds were good soldiers would begin traveling south fairly soon. Whatever time advantage they had over the soldiers would quickly dissolve if they went back.

It was right before they exited the caves that Terra finally awoke. While consciousness was in her grasp, the same could not be said at that moment about the ability to walk unassisted. She required support from Celes, but this was actually relieving after all the time that she had spent in Celes’ arms. Celes hated to admit it, but her arms were sore from carrying Terra.

With assistance, Terra changed back into her own clothes and the three of them finally exited the caves. Once they finally were out of the reaches of the town, they began their journey back to South Figaro.


	5. The Journey Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel, Terra, and Celes return from their journey to Narshe. Feelings are discussed and bonds forged. Also includes an introduction of the party's new base of operations.

Sabin stood amazed at the sheer height Edgar and him had climbed up Mt. Koltz. He could see miles out in the distance to the point that he could make out the beginning of the desert Figaro Castle resided in. He hoped dearly that everyone was being treated fairly during the occupation of said castle. On the walk up, he had asked Edgar the chances that he had enough advanced weapons built to take back their castle. This was almost immediately met with a resounding “no”.

The air was a lot colder than Sabin had expected. While it wasn’t quite as cold as a desert night, it was still chilly enough that Sabin regretted not grabbing a jacket before being taken prisoner by the Empire.

Sabin had expected Edgar to be living in some sort of at least mildly lavish house all the way up on Mt. Koltz. What Edgar led him to was significantly more disappointing. Edgar had pulled away some ivy hanging from the side of a cliff face to reveal the opening to a cave.

The first thing that Sabin noticed about this cave was the sheer amount of stuff in it. Various contraptions that he had no hope of ever understanding were laying against the walls of the cave. One looked to be a suit of armor but the metal making it up was crinkly. Another was like a box of metal but with two slits in it. A third looked like an ordinary ring (alternatively, it could have been a ring). Sabin couldn’t help but wonder just how long it had taken his brother to lug the raw materials to make everything up to this cave.

The cave was fairly small compared to many of the caves Sabin had been in in the past (This number of caves he had explored during his youth was disproportionately large considering he had grown up in the middle of a desert). Still, Edgar’s cave was cozy and surprisingly dry for a cave. The walls were the same brown that Sabin expected from a cave, but they looked solid. He assumed Edgar had put in a lot of time hunting for just the right cave before settling on this one. There was a desk in the center of the cave as well as a bed to the side.

“-and so I cover the outsides in mud so that the monsters don’t smell human scent coming from the cave,” Edgar said. In his time looking around the cave, Sabin had not noticed that his brother had began talking.

Sabin nodded to what his brother had just said. He hadn’t ever thought his brother would have been a cave-dweller. He had assumed his brother would have used his inheritance to buy a nice apartment in Zozo or somewhere similar.

“So that’s my home and, for the time being, your home too,” Edgar said. As he spoke, he patted Sabin’s back.

Edgar’s words brought Sabin’s focus back to Figaro. Despite how much he tried to keep his mind on the present, his thoughts drifted to his father. He could imagine just what his father would think of him if he were still alive.

“Thanks,” Sabin said, trying to ignore the disappointment his father almost certainly would have felt towards him, “Hopefully the girls will be fine with everything once they get back.”

“Speaking of the girls,” Edgar asked, “Do you think I have a shot with any of them?”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up, brother,” Sabin said. He hoped desperately that Edgar wouldn’t ask him what he meant by this.

“What do you mean by that?” Edgar asked. Unfortunately for Sabin, he seemed genuinely curious.

“Well,” Sabin said, “Rachel has _a lot_ of hangups from some dude she used to date who I think died, and I’m like ninety percent sure that Celes and Terra are gay.”

There was a silence in the cave before Edgar asked, “With each other?”

“I don’t think Terra knows it, but I’m pretty sure the two of them have dated.”

“Nice,” Edgar said. He stared into the distance with a sleazy smile on his face.

“Dude,” Sabin said, “This is why you live in a cave.”

 

Celes was relieved on the way back from Narshe that she didn’t have to carry Terra. In general, Celes was in a much better mood than she had been on the way up. This might have been in part because of the fact that they had (essentially) succeeded in their mission. While the esper might not have been in their hands, it still was out of imperial grasp. Now, all she could do was hope that the esper hadn’t decided to burn down a city or two.

The walk back to the outskirts of South Figaro also featured Rachel being just a tad nicer to Celes than she had been on the walk up. She hadn’t thus far made any insults to Celes for being a general and even was apologizing when she occasionally bumped into Celes. Celes didn’t know why Rachel was doing this, but she avoided stirring the pot; she returned the mild pleasantries that Rachel provided her.

Terra looked worn out as she walked on the road. While she was now once again able to walk unassisted, Celes didn’t trust Terra to carry much of anything in that moment given how waifish the girl looked combined with how exhausted she seemed after the events of Narshe. As such, Celes and Rachel were carrying much of Terra’s stuff. This didn’t bother Celes much given that Terra didn’t exactly have a lot (any) possessions beyond the clothes on her back and the supplies Edgar had given her.

The weather was surprisingly nice. With each mile they hiked south, the air around them got warmer and warmer. The sun was out and shining down on them. The tall grass, flowers, and the leaves of the occasional tree within the plains around them were blowing in the wind. The field smelled so much nicer on the way back than it had on the way to Narshe.

As Celes looked ahead at the field before her, she envisioned herself drawing her sword and swinging it through the air, cutting the tops off all the grass around her. While she had quite the urge to do so, she didn’t. She didn’t feel like going through the trouble of unsheathing the sword at her hip.

The momentary thought of slashing the grass got her on the topic of swords.

“Terra,” Celes said, “We gotta get you a sword.” In the recent few days, Celes often found herself worrying about Terra’s lack of protection aside from her magic. While magic was fine, she didn’t feel confident in Terra’s ability to defend herself in the circumstance that she got silenced or otherwise was unable to cast a spell.

A moment later, Terra answered, “I don’t know how to use a sword.” Celes still hadn’t gotten used to how meek the girl’s voice was.

“You got trained to use a sword when we were growing up,” Celes replied. She remembered long days and calloused hands. The sound of wooden swords banging against each other rang through her ears.

“Oh,” Terra said. She gazed downwards at the ground. She sounded distraught.

Celes wasn’t sure how to make Terra feel better. While she knew many of the girl’s ins and outs, lifting her friend’s spirits after said friend realized she had lost all memory of her childhood was not something Celes was very knowledgeable in.

Still, Celes tried her best. It was a few minutes later in the trip that she started gathering flowers and bringing them together into a bouquet she could give to Terra. It was a fun diversion given the sheer amount of colorful flowers she had available to her.

A half hour later, Celes presented the flowers to Terra. The smile on Terra’s face was the widest Celes had seen her make since when they had dated.

Soon after, Terra’s mood returned back to normal. Her steps were a bit longer than before and noticeably springier. Celes wondered to what degree the flowers she had gifted Terra had helped. She was almost certain that, while the flowers had helped to cheer her up, Terra’s own thought processes probably played the majority of the contributions.

A not unpleasant silence soon followed. It was eventually interrupted by Rachel and Celes starting the most civil if idle conversation they had ever had. Soon after, the idle conversation the two of them had been having morphed into the idle conversation the three of them were having.

Terra asked the question, “Who was that guy in Narshe? The one in the green coat?” It wasn’t entirely out of the blue that she asked this question given that the three had currently been talking about the events of their most recent trip to Narshe. Still, Terra’s question surprised Celes.

Her first thought was the fact that Terra had apparently been conscious for at least the later portion of when Celes had carried her out of Narshe. Her second thought was just how exactly she would broach the topic of the man who had played such a large part in raising both of them.

“His name was General Leo,” Celes said.

“But who was he?” Terra asked, “He looked so familiar. Kind of like you did when I first saw you. Like, I knew how to feel around you even if I didn’t know why I was supposed to feel that way.” It took Celes a moment to realize exactly what Terra was referring to when she said ‘when I first saw you.’

“General Leo was… a man who cared about the two of us a lot since we were kids,” Celes said, “He practically raised the two of us”

“He did?” Terra asked. Her eyes were wider than Celes had seen in many months.

“He took us in and taught us so much and encouraged us when we enlisted into the Imperial Army,” Celes said. She waited for a snarky comment from Rachel, but it never came.

“Wow,” Terra said. She looked shocked speechless. Soon after, her gaze wandered to the horizon. If Celes had to guess, Terra was probably imaging the details of growing up. The concept of having every memory of childhood ripped from her was one Celes couldn’t say she understood. Still, she wanted to provide as much sympathy as possible.

 

Rachel had tried to keep the three of them going for as long as she could, but she could feel her body resisting the idea of continuing onward more and more with every passing moment they trekked. It was a few hours after sunset that she eventually conceded that they would have to stop and rest for the night. Fortunately, they had managed to get a ways into a forest by that point. As such, they wouldn’t have to sleep out in the open.

Rachel expected the entire experience of going to sleep that night to be the same as it had been during the few nights on their way up. Between the three of them, they had one tent that two people at a time would share while the third would keep watch in case of ambush. As always, she was going to loath the shift where Terra was watching as that meant Celes and her would have to sleep in tight proximity to each other. While she had warmed up to Celes at least somewhat, she still wasn’t enthusiastic about sharing such space with her. As such, she volunteered for the first shift of the watch.

The night air was cool and crisp enough to be comfortable. Rachel’s eyes had already adjusted to the darkness. All around her was the musky smell of damp nature.

A few minutes into her shift, Rachel had snuck an eye through the crack of the opening to the tent to see Celes having some sort of conversation with Terra. It was clear to her that Terra was beginning to fall asleep as she was laying under a blanket. Celes sounded like she was talking very softly to the other girl. At Terra’s side were the flowers Celes had given her. Rachel wondered a bit as to if this was the first time Celes had given Terra flowers.

It was a few minutes later that Celes exited the tent. Rachel felt a bit worried about potential awkwardness. As such, she didn’t bother asking Celes why it was that she wasn’t sleeping. Celes sat next to Rachel at the opening to the tent. There was silence between the two of them for a few minutes. Rachel could feel the tension in the air.

It was after another few minutes that Rachel worked up the courage to break the silence. “You really care about her,” she said. This was the first question she could think of that was genuine and (hopefully) wouldn’t make things more awkward.

“I think she can tell she’s the only one I have left,” Celes said, “She can’t remember anything about me, but she knows I need her.” Rachel was shocked by the sheer openness with which Celes was speaking.

“She’s seemed nice since I first met her in Narshe,” Rachel said. She felt distance from her own words.

“I don’t think I ever thanked you for saving her,” Celes said.

“Don’t mention it,” Rachel replied. With that, the two returned to silence.

What felt like at least a few minutes passed. This time, it was Celes that broke it. “You also care about Terra.”

“It feels like she needs guidance sometimes,” Rachel said, “Like she’s a younger girl lost in the world. It’s not the sort of thing I can just ignore.”

“It concerns me sometimes just how different she is,” Celes said, “Like, she seems so much _younger_ than I know she is, but she never acted like this when she _was_ younger.” The stoicism in her voice wavered for a moment.

“What was Terra like before the crown?” Rachel asked. The thought had been one incubating in her mind for a while, but she only now had the opportunity to find out the answer.

Celes didn’t respond for a long time. It was too dark outside for Rachel to determine the look on her face. Rachel assumed that she was thinking something over.

“I haven’t even told Terra what she used to be like,” Celes said, “I don’t think I’m ready to tell anyone else. It would be unfair to her.”

The silence returned once again to the two of them. This time, it lasted longer but felt less uncomfortable. Rachel considered telling Celes about Locke. Ultimately, she decided not to. There still was a base level of discomfort between the two, but Rachel was able to ignore it in favor of looking out into the night. The moon was bright as it shined through the treetops above them.

Rachel didn’t know how much later it was that Celes turned to the entrance of the tent. Before she got up to go inside, Celes said, “I’d like to stop fighting with you. For Terra’s sake.”

“For Terra’s sake,” Rachel said. As she spoke, she could see Celes entering back into the tent. Soon after, the ambiance of the night was all Rachel heard.

 

Celes felt lighter the following day. The conversation she had had with Rachel had resonated through her head the rest of that night before she had fallen asleep. It was surprisingly one of the deepest conversations she had had in quite some time.

The walk south was like the previous day’s but, as far as she could tell, all the hostility between her and Rachel was gone. The pleasant idle conversation was still there, but there didn’t seem to be any underlying hostility or even awkwardness. The weather that day was clear and warm. The sun shone bright with hardly a cloud in the sky. The only downside to that day compared to the prior one was that Terra had left the now dried out flowers Celes had given her behind in the forest.

It was still early in the morning when Terra said, “I had a dream last night. I dreamed about sparring you with a wooden sword, Celes. And General Leo was there. And I whacked you by accident. And everyone started laughing. And I think it was snowing, but the snow was kinda darker, and it smelled bad.”

Celes immediately stopped walking. She stood transfixed by what Terra had said. Once she had regained the ability to speak, Celes said, “Terra, that actually happened!” She could remember the feeling of shock when she had been hit in the head with the sword. She could remember the brief feeling of embarrassment she had had before she had joined everyone else in laughing. She could even remember how the air had smelled particularly foul that day.

The wide eyed look Terra had had on her face the previous day was nothing compared to the look she was sporting at that current moment.

The rest of the day consisted of the three of them continuing their walk south while Celes told Terra more stories of the two of them growing up together. Terra as well as Celes hoped that Terra would regain her memories the following night. It had been Terra’s suggestion that Celes do this.

Celes made sure to only tell Terra events that had taken place before the time the two of them had turned 16. That had been the approximate age at which they had started dating. Celes remembered the year or so during which they had dated more fondly than any other period of her life.

Of course, this period of time eventually had came to an end. Celes had woken up one night to find Terra completely gone. It was only through rumors under people’s breaths that she had learned that Terra’s disappearance had been Kefka’s doing. The following months had been the loneliest of Celes’ life.

Celes wasn’t sure if Terra, as she currently was, would want to be in a relationship with her. She didn’t know if Terra was ready for a relationship. She didn’t know if their personalities would conflict with each other now. There was so much she just couldn’t predict.

The way that their relationship was “on pause” with the possibility of it resuming was infinitely better to Celes than their relationship ending. Celes knew that Terra would one day relearn that they had been dating. Ultimately, she intended to let fate decide the day that would happen.

 

It was midway through the day that Celes told Terra what Terra soon after explained to Celes was her favorite story thus far. The story was when the two of them had been fifteen and had snuck out of training to visit a pond and look at frogs. The fact that this story had taken place only a few months before the two of them had gotten together made Celes worry that this was going to let Terra learn how they had been in a relationship. Still, she told the story.

After Celes finished telling the story, Terra requested that Celes stop telling her any more stories for the day. She explained she was afraid that too many stories would mean that this one was less likely to come to her than the others.

The rest of the day was spent in idle conversation as they walked. Celes wasn’t really sure why it was that they hadn’t heard anything about soldiers heading south from Narshe. Either the soldiers they had expected to come that way were at least a solid half day behind them or they had never left. She knew which one she would prefer to believe, but she had doubts.

That night, Celes once again spoke softly with Terra as Terra began falling asleep. This time, Terra had trouble falling to sleep. From what Celes could guess, the excitement from the events of the day was keeping her up.

Celes didn’t know exactly how to handle this. When her and Terra had been dating, she would usually cuddle Terra to sleep if Terra was restless. Given that they were no longer romantically engaged, cuddling was out of the question. Celes already regularly skirted the line of romance, but she was not willing to definitively cross said line especially given that Terra didn’t even know the two of them had been romantically involved.

As such, Celes just tried to calm Terra down. She considered telling Terra a bed time story, but this seemed a bit too infantile. As such, she settled for wishing Terra a good night and then standing watch as she eventually drifted off.

 

Terra woke up the next day to the sight of the roof of the tent above her. She considered it for a moment before remembering that she had a dream to remember. She thought back to earlier in the night to find no memory of any dream. From what she could remember, she hadn’t had any dream that night.

Soon after, Terra, Rachel, and Celes packed up their tent and began once again walking on the road.

“I didn’t have any dreams last night,” Terra said a few minutes into the walk.

“That’s sad to hear,” Celes said, “But I guess you can’t force this thing.” Her voice was confusing to Terra who had expected a bit more sympathy. In the place of said sympathy was what Terra for a moment thought was relief. After a second of contemplation, she came to the conclusion that it would make no sense for Celes to be relieved that she hadn’t recovered any more of her memories. As such, she assumed that she had misread Celes.

The rest of the walk back to South Figaro was simple with yet another clear day. The journey through the cave they had been through on the way up was quick. Another hopeful night happened, and another disappointing morning followed it.

After even more walking, the three found themselves once again in the forests around South Figaro. They had agreed to meet Edgar and Sabin where Edgar currently was living. It was soon after getting to these forests that Celes realized that none of them had ever been to the cave (she assumed a cave) that Edgar lived in. As such, they had no way of knowing where Edgar or Sabin were beyond the broad specifics. All Celes could remember was Edgar mentioning that he lived high up on Mt Koltz.

After much arguing as to what they should do, the three decided that their best bet was to begin making their way to Mt. Koltz and hope that something would happen while they were traveling that would lead them to wherever Edgar and Sabin were.


End file.
